From the Associated Press via the Fort Collins Coloradoan:
FIGHTING FIRES
Last year’s devastating fire season has prompted lawmakers to think about establishing a state firefighting fleet. Under the bill, a new division would have the power to buy or lease firefighting aircraft. The bill faces its first test in a Senate committee on Thursday.
DRILL DEBATES
Democratic efforts to put new limits on oil and gas drillers continue this week. A House committee hears two of them Thursday, including a bill to allow local governments to charge for drill-site inspections. Another bill would commission a study of whether Front Range drilling operations can harm human health.
From The Denver Post (Mark Jaffe) via the Loveland Reporter Herald:
Drilling for oil and gas has nearly doubled on the Front Range since 2006, sparking local concerns and seven legislative bills — with more possible. Some bills focus on the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the agency overseeing oil and gas development. The measures seek to boost inspections, increase spill reporting, raise fines and limit industry influence. Others seek to buttress the role of local government in overseeing oil and gas development…
In 2013, the two largest operators in the region, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Noble Energy, are poised to spend more than $3.2 billion on Front Range oil and gas development and drill about 650 wells. The discretionary portion of the state’s budget, by comparison, is about $8.2 billion. For Hickenlooper, who supports oil and gas development and maintains that the state has sole control over regulating drilling, the Democrat-sponsored and -supported bills create a dilemma. “I am very sympathetic to communities that are seeing a changing landscape and are worried about an industrial activity within a thousand feet of their homes,” Hickenlooper said in an interview. “But what are you going to do, take away everyone’s mineral rights?”[…]
In 2012, Colorado oil production reached a 51-year high — 48 million barrels — and Anadarko and Noble are projecting drilling about 1,600 wells in the next five years. In February, ConocoPhillips announced that it had found a “sweet spot” in the Arapahoe-Adams County area and is planning to drill 38 wells this year. Almost all the activity has been in Weld County, but local officials in neighboring areas are struggling, as drilling spreads, to meet their residents’ concerns over health, safety and property values. “As a local official, you feel your hands are tied,” said Rep. Dominick Moreno, D-Commerce City. “That’s why you are seeing these bills in the legislature.”
A lack of confidence in state regulators is also fueling much of the debate…
“The people rose up and did this because they are not getting satisfaction from their government,” Kaye Fissinger, a spokeswoman for the citizens group Our Health, Our Future, Our Longmont, testified at a hearing. “They were not getting satisfaction from the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission,” Fissinger said.
The administration is trying to find common ground with legislators on some of the bills, Matt Lepore, the executive director of the oil-and-gas commission, said in an e-mail.
But bills requiring an $8.2 million increase in oil and gas inspectors and blocking anyone paid by the industry from serving on the commission — which has three industry-designated seats — are problems, administration officials said. “You want to think very carefully before you change the commission’s mission,” Hickenlooper said…
“It will be interesting to see what the governor does,” said Peter Maysmith, executive director of Conservation Colorado, an environmental group supporting the bills.
“Representatives are bringing their constituents’ concerns about a state agency they do not see as being responsive,” Maysmith said. “This is democracy playing out.”
More 2013 Colorado legislation coverage here.